Paul Rudd ready for Anchorman 2, explains big hair

Rudd says stage role "got under my skin"

Adorable Paul Rudd toned down his everyguy amiability to play a crumbling evangelical businessman in Broadway's Grace, and now he's ready to move on.

Paul Rudd can't wait to dab on some Sex Panther and play Brian Fantana again.

Anchorman: The Legend Continues, the sequel to 2004's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, is tentatively set for a December 2013 release, and for star Paul Rudd, it can't come soon enough.

"I'm ready for comedy in my next Anchorman 2, because my dark role on Broadway got under my skin a little," he told the New York Post's gossip columnist, Cindy Adams.

Now, why would a Broadway show about a Christian couple who gets suckered into a grifter's web and loses both money and faith be depressing? Heh. Grace got good reviews, as did Rudd's performance, particularly since the amiable actor was cast against type.

But after months of crying out to God for relief onstage, Rudd's ready for some hijinks with Anchorman star Will Ferrell.

On a press tour for his last film, the effervescent This is 40, Rudd admitted he didn't "know much about" the film, which has been "shrouded in secrecy."

"I know that's the reason my hair looks like John Taylor from Duran Duran right now," joked Rudd, who had to grow his hair out to 1970s fullness to take on the Fantana role again.

Rudd is also looking forward to reuniting with Ferrell, Steve Carell, David Koechner (who played sportscaster and Ron Burgundy ultra-fan Champion "Champ" Kind) and Christina Applegate again. "It was so fun to do," he says of the first Anchorman.

Judd Apatow, who produced the first Anchorman and is producing the sequel, was a bit more forthcoming in an interview with MTV News, saying of the script, "We read it a few weeks ago and people were laughing so hard that at about 40 minutes in we all just ran out of gas. It was hard to read the whole thing because we got tired."